Customers are busy picking tomatoes from the shelve at Lulu Hyper Market in Old Airport, yesterday.
With increasing import of fruits and vegetables from different new sources, notably from India and Iran, the prices of perishable goods have started returning to normal level, The Peninsula noted.
The Airport branch of Lulu Hypermarkets yesterday offered a kg of tomato, imported from Iran, at QR4. Iranian cabbage, cauliflower and zucchini (Kusa) were also available at QR4, QR6.50 and QR6 per kg respectively.
A kg of Indian banana (Cavendish) and Chile apple (royal gala) were selling at QR7.50 and QR6.75 respectively.
The Hypermarkets also offered Australian carrots and farm fresh cucumbers at QR8 and QR6 per kg respectively. Indian onions and Cyprus potato were available at QR2.50 and 5.50 respectively. Several other verities of Indian vegetables were also being sold at about QR9 per kg.
“We have diversified our sources of import to make available food products especially fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices in the local markets,” a manager of a shopping complex said.
“We noticed that fruits and vegetables imported from Iran and India are cheaper significantly compared to those coming from European countries,” he added. “Some fruits and vegetables, that are not going to perish quickly, have started coming in refrigerator containers from India and Iran therefore they are cheaper compared to those imported from European countries in regular cargo flights,” said the manager.
A big crowd at shelves displaying cheaper fruits and vegetables like tomato, onion, cucumbers and banana as consumers was seen buying these items in large quantities.
“I grabbed about 3kg of Indian tomato and 2kg banana,” said Mohamad Salem, a consumer from Egypt. “Now I am going to take some cucumbers and carrots. Prices of fruits and vegetables are cheaper at Hypermarkets and other outlets operating in shopping complexes like Lulu, Al Meera and Safari, perhaps they have started importing directly from exporting countries, said Salim.
“We expect the prices will further fall as the availability of perishable goods like fruits and vegetables are gradually increasing in the local markets,” said Naimullah, a Pakistani national.
Dairy products are also available in large quantities at reasonable prices in the local markets including commercial outlets, supermarkets and grocery shops throughout the country, The Peninsula noted.
The Turkish dairy products took lion share in replacing the products of siege countries as they are available in large quantities at same prices of those coming from neighboring countries. Turkish milk is available at one and two liters packs at QR6 and QR12 respectably.
Fresh stock of milk has started coming from some European countries but they are a little bit expensive compared to those imported from Turkey.
Two verities of fresh milk imported from UK were selling yesterday at an outlet at about QR13 for one liter and about QR17 for two liters.
